Help from Strangers
by Pacer287
Summary: A story I dreamed up with some of my characters and some characters created by the remarkably talented Zephyros-Phoenix. Expect magic, explosions, bad jokes, and a battle between an unstoppable force and an immovable object. Rated T due to some language and intense fight scenes. R&R.
1. Strange Meetings

Help from Strangers

Strange Meetings

The forest was quiet at night. Not quiet in the traditional sense though; in fact it seemed like the bugs, bats, and birds where competing to see who could create more noise, but it was quite in a different way, a way only Cyber could understand. There were no radio signals, no wireless connection, none of the constant electronic chatter that almost always filled her head whether she liked it or not. The only voice in her head was her own.

"I needed this." She sighed to herself. "No hashtags, no texts, none that Internet idiocy in my head. I can finally hear myself think clearly." She smiled to herself as she kept walking, not really going anywhere, just walking and thinking and enjoying the natural world instead of the digital world. It was nice to be out in nature, peaceful, unpredictable nature.

Her bliss was unfortunately interrupted when five tendrils shot out of the tree above her and wrapped around her waste, wrists, and ankles. The brown hedgehog angrily thrashed against the tendrils as they lifted her off the ground.

"Not so tough without your technology now aren't you?"

That voice, Cyber immediately recognized it, she stopped struggling and immediately noticed that they were covered in red fur. Of course it was him, he always had to make an entrance.

"Not funny Daylen!" She called irritatedly, looking up at the red fox using his last two tails hang from a tree branch. "I was trying to zone out."

"You were zoned out all right." Daylen replied as he lowered her to the ground and released her. "I wasn't even trying to be sneaky." Bingo! He just set himself up.

"Testing your ninja skills are we?" Cyber replied with a snicker, causing Daylen to groan in annoyance.

"For the last time: just because I'm a fox with multiple tails does NOT mean I'm from Japan, I'm from Chun-nan." He stated as he dropped to the ground. "I've told you a thousand times, why do you always do that?"

"Because It's cute when you get agitated." Cyber replied before hugging him. "Oh Daylen, I haven't seen you in so long."

"It's only been a few weeks."

"Shut up and hug me back."

"No need to tell me twice." Daylen replied as he quickly returned her embrace, wrapping all seven of his tails around her. Everything seemed to go silent for the two twelve year olds as they hugged it out. "You're right, it really does feel like it's been forever."

"Yeah... Alright, I'm getting tired of all this downer talk." Cyber said as she quickly pulled away.

"You know, your focus shifts faster than a chipmunk on caffeine." Daylen replied flatly.

"I didn't come out here to get depressed, I came out here to chill. But now that you're getting psyched is also an option."

"Wait, how does me being here-"

"Oh come on Daylen; you and I both know you never come here unless you've got a new trick you want to show off." Cyber smiled.

"Well, now that you mentioned it..." Daylen let his voice trail off, suddenly a pair of vines wrapped around Cyber's ankles and pulled her up into a tree. Again.

"What is it with you and hanging me upside down!?"

"You're cute when your agitated." Daylen replied tauntingly. Cyber growled at him and her eyes began to glow, various random pieces of technology and metal flew out of her backpack and began piecing themselves together until they formed into a small disc-shaped drone which quickly cut through the vines.

"Alright Daylen, if you're gonna try to dive me crazy than I'm gonna drive you crazy." The drone flew behind Daylen and fired a small laser, to small to do any real harm, at one of his tails. This particular tail had a light blue ring on the end.

"YOW! That's my lucky seventh tail!" He cried. "Oh that's it, I'm giving you the cold shoulder." He fired two bolts of teal energy from his index fingers that instantly froze Cyber's shoulders.

"Are the cheap puns really necessary?" The brown hedgehog asked as she quickly shook the ice off. The drone disassembled and several more pieces of technology flew out of Cyber's backpack and formed a metal glove. She fired a subsonic blast that destroyed Daylen's equilibrium and caused him to fall face first into the ground. "Still having fun?"

"Y-Yeah, sure thing." Daylen replied as he shakily got back to his feet. "I getting a real charge out of this." His hands instantly crackled with lightning, but the moment they did his eyes widened and he suddenly looked turned around, almost like he was looking for something.

"Uh... Daylen? You okay?" Cyber was half expecting him to turn around and hit her with an electric shock that would make her quills stand on end, he knew she hated that, but he didn't respond. "Okay, now you're starting to creep me out."

"I... Sense something." The red fox replied distractedly.

"What?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is it feels... Scared... Alone... And I think, I think it's hurt." Cyber didn't waste any time converting her sonic glove into a visor.

"Heat signature. Five hundred meters that way." She pointed to the southwest.

"Okay, whatever this is I can sense it's got some magical power, stay behind me and keep quite."

"You got it, ninja style." Cyber's reply was immediately followed by Daylen grumbling about how he was Chinese. A quick joke to help her calm down. Magic wasn't like technology, in fact it was practically the antithesis of technology: wild, intangible, and unpredictable. Lucky she had Daylen.

The two continued slowly moving through the forest, slowly inching their way towards whatever had created the disturbance. Eventually the only thing between them and it was a thick tree trunk. Daylen motioned for Cyber to stay back while he moved forward, projecting a shield from his hand just to be safe. He was gone for about a minute before he 'signaled' for her to come out.

"Sweet mother of...! Cyber you've gotta see this!" Cyber didn't answer, she was to busy trying to figure out whether she should try to strangle Daylen or let whatever he'd found eat him. "Cyber it's okay, she's unconscious now get out here! You're not gonna believe this!" She? Okay that was interesting. Cyber hesitantly walked around the trunk and out into the open, she saw Daylen standing a few feet away and walked up to him. He was right; she couldn't believe it.

"Is that a dragon?!"

"Sure looks like it."

"But aren't they... You know, fictional?"

"Really?" Daylen asked flatly. "You can turn a scrapyard into a mech, your brother's a living battery, heck your own boyfriend is an all-powerful mage, and you draw the line at dragons?"

"First of all you're not all powerful in any sense. Secondly I would have believed this if it was a classic, fifty-foot, fire breathing dragon. This is just a girl, she can't be much older than we are." Cyber moved towards the unconscious creature, very slowly, and very gently placed her hand on the creatures side. Her touch was greeted by a soft groan causing the brown hedgehog to yelp in surprise and scramble backwards, this in turn caused Daylen to chuckle.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing..." Daylen smirked. "It's just... I never imagined a dragon would have hair." He slowly toward the dragon, eager to get a closer look, but as he did a familiar scent reached his nose. "Wait a second..." His steps quickened and he crouched down next to her, something felt... Off, for lack of a better term. A few seconds later something in his brain clicked and he brushed some of her hair to the side. "Cyber, she's been burnt!"

"A dragon? Burnt?"

"Just get over here!" Daylen never raised his voice unless something was important, it wasn't part of his happy-go-lucky personality. Cyber noticed the burns and gasped. That was when things started getting clearer, almost like the shock had caused her eyes to adjust to the dark.

"Daylen..."

"Hold that thought, I think I know how to treat this."

"Do you know how to treat the others?"

"What other- Whoa! Did this girl lose a fight with a volcano or something?!"

The dragon girl was covered in all kinds of burns of every degree, parts of her wings were damaged, the end of her tail was charred black, and that was just the stuff on her back. Anybody who understood the Rule of Nines would know that this wasn't looking good.

"Daylen... You think you could roll her over?" Daylen nodded and his eyes began to glow purple. After a few seconds the girl was surrounded by a purple aura and slowly levitated off the ground. "Gently, we don't want to hurt her any more." Unfortunately when they turned turned her over they found that she was in even worse shape than they thought.

More gruesome burns covered her abdomen and blood trickled from her mouth, but she was breathing; breathing meant life, life meant hope.

"We have to get her back to my place." Cyber said urgently.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Daylen replied.

"Why?"

"You're brother kinda... Hates me."

"Could we please worry about that later?" More machines started flying out of Cyber's backpack and formed into her Extreme Gear board, Mecha Morph. "Just put her down, gently, and we can take her back and Celine can take care of her."

"And then you're brother fries me!" Daylen replied. "Look, I'm all for helping this kid but I'm not gonna- OW OW OW! Let go of my lucky seventh tail!" Cyber paid no attention to his cries as she dragged the vulpine through the forest while guiding her board with her technopathy. After a few miles of thrashing protests he finally complied.

After what seemed like an eternity Cyber finally sensed it; a single point that was channeling a massive amount of information into a single point, a military grade Internet transceiver tapped into the most advanced feeds available. And it was small enough to fit into a house, very small for a server that could process such a massive amount of information. That was her home.

Cyber quickly ran up to the door and began pounding like there was no tomorrow. "STATIC! STATIC! Open the you walking bug zapper it's an emergency!" After a few seconds the door was opened by a brown hedgehog with the messiest fur anyone had ever seen. Enter Cyber's older brother Static.

"Come on Daylen we gotta move!" Cyber quickly shoved past her brother, dragging the fox and the Extreme Gear-turned-gurney behind her.

"Hi Static. Bye Static." Daylen said quickly as he was dragged through the door and into another room. Static was utterly confused.

"Static?" He turned when he heard his name being called. "What was that all about?" The speaker was Celine; a brown hedgehog like Static and Cyber but with absolutely no biological relation to them whatsoever, though she was a... Very close friend, which was a rarity for people like them.

"I, well, Cyber, Daylen, dragon girl, I didn't, and I'm babbling like an idiot." Static floundered over his words. Celine just chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"Come on, let's see what they've gotten themselves into this time." Celine and Static went into the room that there two younger teammates had rushed into and where hit with the jaw dropping shock of seeing a dragon being plugged into various medical devices.

"Daylen." Static said slowly in an agitated tone. "Why is there a dragon in here?"

"Oh what, everything is my fault?" The fox replied defensively.

"You're the magic guy." Static countered.

"He didn't do anything." Cyber interjected. "We found her like this in the woods and we brought her back here. I figured Celine could patch her up."

"I'm not sure..." Celine's voice trailed off as she examined the dragon from head to tail. "I don't know anything about dragon biology, heck, I didn't even think they existed until about thirty-seven seconds ago."

"Well can't you just assume it's like treating any other lizard?" Daylen asked.

"Only if I didn't want to give her the best chance of waking up." Celine replied. "Although... Burn treatments for scaled creatures is pretty much the same no matter the species... I could risk it, but I'll need Cyber to build some stuff for me."

The next two hours were a split between Cyber assembling and disassembling various medical machines and Celine examining and treating the girls injuries. Early they discovered that the burns weren't just burns; some of them were from fire, some were from what appeared to be energy blasts, and some weren't burns at all but frostbite. There was some good news though, most of the burns were actually pretty minor despite there appearance.

"Okay, done." Celine sighed after applying the last bandage. "I have to admit that went better than I expected."

"Guess you've got something special to put on your resume now?" Static chuckled.

"Only if I'm applying to an asylum." Celine replied.

"Uh guys, she's waking up." Cyber pointed at an EKG that showed the dragons heart rate was rising. A minute or two later the girls eyes began to flutter open.

"Ugh, my head..." She slowly sat up, aided by the potent pain medication Celine had given her, but unfortunately waking up in what a lab with numerous machines attached to you is not exactly calming. "What the- Who are you? Where am I?!"

"Easy there."" Celine said, raising her hands to show she was unarmed. "We're not trying to-" Unfortunately a combination of fear and narcotics doesn't make for a very cooperative patient. The dragon raised her hand and, much to everyone's surprise, fired a lightning bolt. Celine quickly jumped out of the way and Static, operating on pure instinct, charged the girl and grabbed her hands. If there was one thing he knew it was electrokinesis, he didn't have anything to fear from her. He began absorbing the energy in the girls hands but something happened, he started seeing things, hearing voices.

_Azure Mythos... G.U.N... Mythsetian... Shadow... Forgotten Veil... Team Scales... Azreal... Garnet..._

"GAH!" Static grabbed his head in pain and reeled backwards. Celine and Cyber quickly caught him before he could fall.

"You okay bro?" Cyber asked. Static didn't answer, instead he raised his hand towards the dragon, who he now knew was named Azure, and electromagnetically pulled something out of her vest.

"She's a Gun Nut." Static snarled the popular derogative for G.U.N. agents as he held up the badge in his hand for Celine to see. "Call your brother and get her the fuck out of here." He pulled away from the two hedgehogs and quickly jumped into the air, transformed into electricity, and zapped into an electrical socket.

There was a deadly silence after that; Statics actions seemed to have calmed Azure down and shocked everyone else, though his reaction to her being a G.U.N. agent wasn't unexpected considering his 'history' with the organization.

"Well..." Cyber nervously broke the silence. "I'm gonna go make sure Static's okay and then... Well I feel like ordering dinner, is sushi alright with you Daylen?"

"I'm Chinese." The fox groaned back.

"Yeah, and I'm in the mood for sushi, you got a problem with that?"

"Oh... No I'm okay with sushi." The fox and hedgehog left, leaving Celine alone with Azure.

"I should probably apologize for... Well, everyone here actually." Celine said in a calming voice. "I'm Celine. What's your name?"

"A-Azure..." The dragon replied.

"Okay Azure, is it okay if I take a look at you? I want to make sure you're okay and there's some stuff I couldn't check while you were unconscious." Azure nodded nervously. "Hey, don't worry. We're the good guys."

"Who are you?"

"We call ourselves Team Anonymous; we're basically a group of misfits who protect Apotos and the surrounding areas. The guy who broke several rules of physics and biology by turning into electricity is Static, the little hedgehog with the major case of ADHD is Cyber, and the fox with seven tails who, as far as I know, has no connection to Miles Prower is Daylen."

"Why am I here?"

"You were hurt, Cyber and Daylen found you, and I fixed you up. Simple as that."

**A.N. Here's the first chapter of this story and as is the trend with all my first chapters it sucks.**

**I would like to point out that my character Daylen was NOT influenced by Tails in any way despite the fact that he is a fox with seven tails. And the joke about whether he's Chinese or Japanese is a joke about the mythical Kitsune creature from Japan which I did not know about until after I made Daylen. I'm not prejudice towards Japanese, Chinese, or any ethnicity, religion, sexuality and find the very concept of prejudice to be rediculous.**

**This story takes place in the Sonic video game universe and not the comic universe though some concepts of the comic universe are present.**

**Azure, Garnet, and Azreal are property of Zephyros-Phoenix**

**Static, Cyber, Celine, Daylen, and Austin are property of Pacer287**

**Neither of the aforementioned authors own Sonic.**


	2. Power is Pain

Help from Strangers

Power is Pain

Ozone and paint fumes.

Arguably the most horrid scent conceivable, enough to burn the hairs off the inside of your nose and make your eyes water. To say nothing of the health risks. It was almost incomprehensible how anyone could tolerate such a scent, much less live in a room filled with it.

That was Static, somehow tolerating the intolerable.

"Geez Static." Celine coughed as the door to the electrokinetic hedgehog's room opened and the scent hit her like a freight train. "You're goanna die of lung cancer if you don't leave the door open every now and then."

Static's only response was a soft moan as Celine entered the empty chamber that served as her friends' room. He was sitting at the back of the room, curled up into a ball with his face buried in his arms. Moping as usual.

"I finished treating the girl's burns. Her names Azure by the way." Celine crossed her arms in disapproval. Static brooding was nothing new and she would normally just let him wallow in his own misery. This time was different though.

"I also called Austin." She continued. "He said he could pick her up tomorrow. All I have to do is drive her to Apotos and she'll be out of your hair."

Static didn't respond. Celine sighed.

"Look Static; I understand you hate G.U.N., I admit I'm not their biggest fan either, but Azure was scared and hurt. Judging from her wounds she may have even been tortured. You were way out of line to call her a Gun Nut and zap out like that."

No response.

"You didn't have any right to talk to her the way you did. I don't care if you hate G.U.N. I don't care if you hate power. You can't just treat scared kid like she's a monster just because of what she can do or who she works for."

For a long time there was silence. Celine stared down the brown hedgehog as the acrid scent continued to burn away at her eyes and nostrils. The quiet was finally broken when a soft, scratchy voice pierced the air.

"I didn't yell at her because I hate her."

That certainly caught Celine off guard.

"What do you mean?"

"I yelled at her, and left, because I'm freaking out." Static finally raised his head so Celine could see his face.

His right eye was blood red, and it regarded her the way an animal regards its prey.

Celine immediately crouched down to eye level and put her hand on his shoulder. "How's it going in there?"

"I'm fine. He's really just an irritant at the moment." Static groaned as he leaned his head back against the wall. "I just figured that Azure was scared enough without me wrestling with the homicidal voice in my head." Celine sat down next to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

"Static..."

"I'm good, really I am." Static reassured her. "He's not gonna get out again Ce. I promise." She softly kissed him on the cheek. "Just don't worry about me."

"I'm a doctor Static, it's my job to worry about you."

"I thought doctors weren't allowed to fall in love with their patients?" Static smirked; his red eye had begun to fade back to its natural blue.

"You're not the only one who doesn't follow the rules." Celine smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. "And besides, all this is off the record. Can you imagine what would happen if I dragged an injured dragon into an ER?"

"R&amp;D would probably snatch her." Static growled bitterly, his eye started turning red again as the memories began flooding his mind. Torture. Murder. Experiments. Electricity. Davis. Agony. Reese.

_"They'll pay for what they did to you. What they did to him. Just let me out. There's a battery downstairs. I'll make them pay for hurting you, for making you a hypocrite, for giving you power. They will all pay for-"_ A soft kiss on the cheek woke him from his trance.

"You should go Ce." Static grasped at his temples, digging his claws so deep into his scalp that it bled. "Just... Just let me deal with this on my own."

"If you don't let me treat the wound then it will never heal." Celine sighed as she got up and walked out. Static curled into an even tighter ball and began rocking back and forth. Back and forth. The war raged on.

_Static... G.U.N... Reese... Shadow... R&amp;D... Team Anonymous... Davis... Celine..._

Azure's eyes slowly fluttered as the memories forced her out of her restless sleep. Wait, memories? That wasn't right; she didn't recognize half of the people or places she'd seen and the ones she did recognize felt all wrong. She didn't know what R&amp;D was, she'd only just met Celine, and for some reason she felt like she wanted to see G.U.N. burn in hell.

"How do you do it Azure?"

Azure jumped as she noticed the brown hedgehog leaning against a nearby wall. His fur was wild and unkempt; his blue eye's deep and troubled. His entire body was lean but very well muscled. But the strangest thing was that his appearance seemed more animalistic than regular Mobians; maybe he was some kind of sub-species? Not that hard to believe considering her own background.

"How do I do what? Shoot lightning? I was born-"

"How are you able to stay optimistic?" Static cut her off, walking over and sitting in front of the couch. Azure shifted into a sitting position, absentmindedly wondering when she'd been moved to the couch.

"Its not that hard really, just focus on the good things." She said.

"Yeah..." Static sighed. "That's what everyone I've asked says. 'Just think of the good stuff' and things like that. Except it's not easy for all of us."

"I'm not denying that." Static raised an eyebrow at her words. "Just because I focus on the good things doesn't mean I ignore all the bad stuff that happens, it just means I prioritize the good thoughts over the bad ones. And if I have trouble with that then I have a big family to fall back on."

That was a refreshing change. Most of the time when Static talked to someone about being optimistic it was the same old thing about staying positive and looking on the bright side. This was a nice contrast: acknowledge that bad things happen but don't focus on them, as for the part about relying on others... he was still getting used to that concept in general.

"Very insightful, you been rehearsing that?"

"No, it just sorta... came to me." Azure replied. A grin almost formed on Statics face, this girl was a lot like Cyber without the Wi-Fi induced ADHD. "Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask anything, whether I answer is another matter." Static replied flatly.

"When I woke up earlier you grabbed me and I felt... I felt like someone was trying to suck the life out of me. And then you transformed into a bolt of lightning and went into the wall." Azure held out her arm and a ball of lightning appeared in her palm. "Do we have the same power?"

"Hmpf." Static snorted. "If you'd asked me that a few years a few years ago I'd have gone off on a rant about how power is the cause of all the world's problems." Static held up his arm and electricity crackled through it. "Nowadays however, I've been having different thoughts. Don't ask about it, we'd be here for years." Azure nodded.

"To answer your question; we have similar powers. You can generate electricity while I have to absorb it, but as a consequence you can barely contain your power while I have perfect control over my own."

"How did you know I have trouble controlling my powers?"

"The inhibitors are a dead giveaway." Static replied. "Those aren't really helping you get better by the way."

"I don't use them to improve my powers, I need to keep them on or else they'd go out of control and... Well I try not to think about that." Azure sighed.

"And that's the problem." Static replied. "Those inhibitors keep you set at a certain power level, no chance for improvement, no risk. If you want to improve you need to take risks. No fear."

_"Pretty ironic; a guy who hates power teaching an embodiment of power how to control power."_

Static groaned and put his hand on his temple.

"Are you alright?" Azure asked.

"Old wounds." Static groaned. "Not sure if you figured it out yet but I've seen a lot of bad things. I've got a lot of hate in me."

"You shouldn't do that, keep everything inside. In the end it doesn't help anything; you just get bitter and angry and wind up hating the world." Azure said, her face becoming sad "I know what happens to people who hold a grudge for too long; they end up hurting everyone who cares about them and driving them away until there's nothing but hatred and revenge."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you've seen someone go storming down that road?" Static asked.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"No problem... Hey Azure."

"Yeah?"

"If you really want to become stronger than don't worry about how much power you can use safely, worry about what you can already do with what you have. There's more to electrokinesis then just shooting electricity and eating lightning."


End file.
